Francesca Simon: I’m a mixture of both Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter

We asked the Horrid Henry author what her younger self would make of her today...

When I was eight years old, I had a formative moment in the bathroom of our Malibu house with my mother. While being conservative about her children, she was iconoclastic at heart. As a political activist and passionate fighter for social justice, she was involved in the desegregation of the St Louis lunchrooms in Missouri in the late Forties and took us on anti-war demonstrations. At any rate, and I remember this distinctly, she told me when I was eight that I could either get married or have a career; to do both as a woman would be impossible. I replied: in that case, I’ll never get married. I believed it. I was a fiercely independent child and loathed the idea of sitting at home all day.

Francesca Simon

My younger self would therefore be open-mouthed with wonder that I have a career, a husband and a 25-year-old son called Joshua. I first spent time in London when I was six, when my father, a scriptwriter, came to the UK to work on a Judy Garland film. I returned in my 20s to study at Oxford and never left. Now we live in north London.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want a family but, as a strong feminist, I put it out of my mind. I was never the child who spent hours drawing her wedding dress or coming up with names of imaginary children. Being different didn’t bother me. I was curvy with dark, curly hair surrounded by Malibu girls with long, straight, blonde hair and slim bodies. I just accepted it.

As a girl I wanted to become President of the United States or a lawyer. It wasn’t until my late teens that I knew I wanted to write, but I never had any ambition to be a children’s author. Learning I am a bestselling author and that my Horrid Henry series has been translated into 27 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide would have been a shock, but a happy one. It seems so blatantly obvious, given the kind of person I am – funny, logical, imaginative, and I love medieval tales and folk music – that I would suit writing children’s books. I’ve never felt the intellectual pressure to write serious novels. I don’t enjoy researching books.

At school I was impeccably behaved and the class swot. Teachers loved me and I worked hard. Then I’d get home, slam doors, shout and be horrible

I only considered writing for children after having Joshua. Before that, I was at Yale and Oxford studying medieval history and literature, then became a journalist. I knew I was good at writing, even if people doubted my choice of degree; they asked how medieval studies would ever be useful. I’ve had the last laugh, as my latest book, The Monstrous Child, is based on Norse mythology.

It wasn’t that I started reading children’s books with Josh and thought, yes, I can do that. My mind just became suddenly flooded with ideas. My first pitch was rejected with horror by a publisher. It was about strange wriggling fingers coming down from the ceiling towards a baby. It sounds scary, but it was what I used to do with Josh. I wish I still had the rejection letter because it went on for a page about what an utterly terrible idea it was.

As the eldest of four siblings, I was a split personality. At school I was impeccably behaved and the class swot. Teachers loved me and I worked hard. Then I’d get home, slam doors, shout and be horrible. I’m a mixture of both Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter.

Francesca Simon aged 14 with her brother

If my younger self could see me wearing dresses and cardigans, she would shriek. I lived in jeans and trousers. I refused to wear anything fashionable. I always had to do the opposite of the accepted norm. That, in itself, is a different form of tyranny.

My only pause for thought now might be that I am less politically engaged than I used to be. I was on a library demonstration two weeks ago but my political consciousness has dulled. Now I focus more on literacy and encouraging children to read.

I think people have a fantasy that their life can be planned. Mine has swerved in directions I could never have imagined and is, as a result, far better than I could have ever hoped.

The Monstrous Child by Francesca Simon is published by Faber (£9.99). To order your copy call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk. Francesca Simon will be speaking at the Hay Festival on Sunday 29th May at 5.30pm, HD21; hayfestival.com